ABSTRACT
All human beings have emotional problems — times when they feel despair, anger, disappointment, envy, boredom, restlessness, agitation. It is a myth that people diagnosed with a psychiatric disorder are emotionally disturbed while everyone else is OK! (People with mental health problems may feel worse, these feelings persist longer and they find it harder to function in daily life.) Here are some basic truths about emotions:
Everyone suffers.
Emotions, like other conditions (such as the weather, the physical state of our body, even the state of the planet), change.
Emotional distress is caused partly by real external experience (loss, poverty, injustice) and partly by the perspective we take and views we hold (e.g. taking things personally).
